The Weekly Chunk: Minecraft 1.3 Prerelease

Check out the video contest we are doing and create your own Minecraft 1.3 commercial.
Yours could be featured on the Mojang YouTube channel!

Can’t wait to see the amazingness you create!

It’s finally time for Minecraft 1.3! As the norm is these days, we prepare the community and server providers with a prerelease. The official release date is August 1, so that’s when everybody will get the update in the launcher.

Here’s a brief collection of all the changes made since Minecraft 1.2.5:

The game now runs an internal server in single-player mode

The single-player server can be shared on LAN, with LAN server detection

Made it possible to use client-side commands by enabling cheats (this is defaulted as disabled for old worlds)

Added an optional “bonus chest” to get started quicker

It’s now possible to trade with villagers. Added emeralds as a currency

You gain enchantment orbs from other tasks than just destroying monsters. Max enchantment level has been decreased to 30

Servers can automatically suggest and distribute texture packs

Added new world map elements (does not need a new map, but they’ll only appear in new areas)

UPDATE: The release has been updated to 1.3.1 instead of just 1.3, because the obfuscation was wrong and made life (more) difficult for modders. We also fixed a couple of other minor issues. Normal users don’t need to bother to download again, the patch doesn’t contain any new features, and this 1.3.1 build will be pushed on Wednesday.